Long queues formed outside the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters on Tuesday as hundreds of anxious citizens gathered to apply for birth and death certificates. The rush, driven by an impending SIR hearing, began well before official office hours, stretching from the city and its adjoining neighbourhoods.
Chaos and Crowd Management at KMC
The civic staff at the inquiry kiosks found it challenging to manage the large number of applicants, all vying to submit their documents. The situation necessitated police presence to maintain order and prevent any untoward incidents. KMC personnel were instructed to listen patiently to applicants and accept applications that adhered to all registration rules.
A KMC health department official revealed that they encountered applicants from outside Kolkata's limits, seeking birth certificates due to the ongoing "SIR panic." These out-of-town applications had to be politely refused as per jurisdiction rules.
Application Numbers and Civic Response
According to a senior KMC health department official, while 360 applications were received via a chatbot service—which includes requests for passport verification—only about 50 were accepted manually from the long queue that persisted since late morning.
In response to the crisis, Mayor Firhad Hakim directed KMC Chief Municipal Health Officer (CMHO) Ranita Sengupta on Friday to ensure the civic body starts receiving and processing at least 500 birth and death certificate applications daily from the following week. Currently, the department handles about 150 applications daily through the chatbot.
Taking note of the serpentine queues on Monday, the KMC birth certificate wing proactively increased its daily quota to 240 and agreed to resume accepting applications manually to ease public hardship.
New Counters and Future Plans
A KMC birth certificate wing official assured that the situation is expected to improve significantly from Wednesday. The civic body plans to install eight additional manual counters at its headquarters to distribute the workload.
"We have decided to set up eight makeshift counters to take the workload off the birth certificate wing from Wednesday onwards," confirmed a civic official.
The new counters will specifically cater to applicants residing in areas under boroughs I to VIII. Meanwhile, applications from boroughs IX to XVI will continue to be processed at the existing counters. The additional counters will be operated by trained employees from the respective boroughs, aiming to streamline the process and reduce waiting times for Kolkata's residents.
